The Laments of a Black Cat
by pyxistar
Summary: "Take my miraculous, please."


The betrayal in her eyes was almost too much to bare.

The sun was shining too brightly. The heat was unbearable in Chat Noir's suffocating leather suit, which was rendered uncomfortably sticky on this particularly fine June afternoon. Birds sang in the trees, breezes whistled innocently through the leaves. Yet there the pair stood, faces as grave as tombstones, eyes locked in a dangerous staring contest. Chat Noir didn't even have to say the words that boiled on the tip of his tongue. Ladybug could see it swimming in the storm raging within his eyes.

"I don't understand." She panted, cheeks flushed from the sweltering summer heat. She positioned her hands above her head and took a big step back. Chat swore he could hear her chest pounding wildly in her chest.

"It doesn't matter." He replied firmly. He twisted his ring around his finger. "I'm asking you to trust me, nothing more."

"But..." She swallowed, her gaze flickering between his onyx miraculous and his profile, her eyes suddenly becoming more silver than blue, like the sky about to break into storm.

The silence between them was thick, enough to choke on. Chat's ears were flat against his head, and he had his tail looped between his fingers as he tugged nervously at the end.

Ladybug wiped her slick bangs out of her face, grimacing as beads of sweat trickled down her temple and dripped onto her gloves fingers. Still, she somehow managed to shiver when Chat stepped closer to her, closing the distance she put between them.

His left hand gripped her wrist, pulling her body flush against his. Her eyes widened. For a few seconds, she didn't breathe. Then, finally, she released a shaky exhale. His blood transformed into sizzling lava beneath his skin when he felt her warm breath fan against his damp cheeks.

"I trust you."

For a brief moment, he allowed hope to swell in his chest. It was like a blinding light gleaming at the end of a dark sea, just close enough for its warmth to lick his skin, but just far enough to be out of reach. But then she put her hand on his chest and pushed him back, turning her face away from his.

"But you're asking me to go against everything I believe, everything we've fought for!"

"No I'm not! What I'm asking aligns perfectly well within your moral lane!"

"How, Chaton? How could you possibly justify this? Any of it?"

"Because Hawk Moth is my father!"

Ladybug flinched. He couldn't tell if it was a tear that slithered down her cheek or another droplet of sweat. Either way, she reached up to brush it away with the back of her hand. She was quivering.

Her face lost at least three shades of color until she resembled a porcelain doll. Only the color of her eyes remained, swirling with clouds of confusion and disbelief. She made her frame more compact, if that were possible, and pressed herself against the tree trunk behind her.

He reached out for her again. She allowed him to squeeze her shoulder. But when he tried to pull her in for a hug, she shook her head. Instead, she reached up with her own hand. She caressed his skin gently, as if applying too much pressure would cause him to crack.

"Why didn't you tell me..?" She whispered.

"I know you've been keeping secrets from me. It seemed only fair I get to have a few of my own," He supplied almost bitterly. Her touch, which typically brought a pleasant tingling sensation rushing to the surface of his skin, soured under the tartness of his words. Ladybug slowly dropped her arm to her side, looking all but gobsmacked as Chat reached down into a bag he had slung around his shoulders and pulled out a book. The miraculous book he'd found all those years ago behind his mother's portrait. "You know what this is, don't you?"

Her lips parted to respond, but then they clamped shut. She repeated this process several times before settling on a grim nod. Chat Noir kept the cyclones of furry at bay. He prepared himself for this betrayal. He'd monologued to Plagg many times about it over the course of the past few weeks, gearing up for the moment she'd twist a knife into his heart.

He shook his head. He couldn't linger on this betrayal. It was a mere paper cut compared to the ragged wounds his father beat into him with his wild ideologies and empty promises. He was no more loyal to Gabriel than he was to Ladybug now.

"I'm sorry." This time he was certain that it was a tear that dripped from her eye. "I just..." Her shoulders slumped. Her features drooped. Every inch of her reminded him of a wilting flower, in dire need of sunlight and water before the arid air choked it of life altogether.

He had to turn away, lest he let his facade falter.

"If you want to make it up to me you'll do me this one favor." He mustered up all the strength he had stored up inside of him. He even thrusted in the image of his mother into his mind, letting her memory shock his senses. He had to do this. Not for the sake of Ladybug or his father, but for his Mom.

Finally, Chat had enough strength to look Ladybug straight into the eyes. Stormy seas met tornado-green. "Take my miraculous. Please."

Ladybug squeezed her eyes shut. Chat felt time slow down around him. He wanted to scream at her, reprimand her for her selfishness. She couldn't even look him in the eye. But he needed her to understand, he needed her to do him this one favor, just this once.

Then again, perhaps it was folly to expect Ladybug to understand his predicament. No one in this city could relate to his toils and traumas. After all, how many people mysteriously lost their mother with not so much as a single clue left of her existence besides the memories and pictures she left behind? How many people had to face a cold and unresponsive father that, in the wake of his utter failure to best two teenagers, turned to his son with the threat of taking his miraculous? How many people felt the dastardly shadow of their father looming over them like a poised knife within every corridor of their own home?

Gabriel had given him two choices: help him get Ladybug's miraculous or give up his own.

Chat knew what he had to do. He had to get rid of the wretched thing before he could toy with his father's offer any further. One more second and he'd take it all back. He knew he'd rush into his father's study, fall to his knees and beg him to let Chat be his faithful partner, to let him help Hawk Moth capture the ladybug miraculous so his mother could be returned.

Yet here he was, begging Ladybug to take his miraculous instead. And there she was, turning her back towards him, having the audacity to cry as if she were the one with the bleeding heart - as if she were the one with the war raging in her very soul, woven into the core of her very being.

"I can't!" As if the universe were unraveling at the spilt of creation's counterpart - the equilibrium that kept the world at the necessary balance - a squall ripped across the city, its screeching causing both of them to flinch. Chat looked up into the expanse of the clear blue sky. He could imagine his father's eyes glowering back at him, preparing to launch a threefold of akumas to disrupt the transaction. Urgency hounded away all rationality.

The conversation took place in the park. It was the only spot Chat had managed to catch Ladybug before she slipped off back to her civilian life after the defeat of the most recent super villain. He hated the way the sunlight illuminated the tear tracks staining her cheeks like a star jeweled sky. He hated the way she closed in on herself, drawing the eye of every bystander to them.

Chat shook his head, grabbing his lady's wrist and dragging her away into the seclusion of a nearby alleyway, (hopefully) far from prying eyes. The shadows cast a sudden coolness over their bodies. He relished in it, but only for a moment. Then he found himself tracing his fingers gently along the cataract of tears streaming down his partner's face, leaving her eyes swollen and red.

"You'll find another Chat Noir. One that can be unbiased in the upcoming battles, one that'll serve you well in the months to come."

"There will never be another," she said firmly, "you can't be replaced. You're my partner."

"We made a purrfect team." He tried to smile. He tried to look reassuring, as if worry lines weren't marring his adolescence and his lips weren't pressed so thin that his smile was more of a grimace. Nevertheless, he took a step back before Ladybug could say anything in return. Raising a hand, Chat popped the ring off his finger and slapped the cool silver down into the palm of Ladybug's hands. "Goodbye Plagg."

His eyes closed, although not before he curled her delicate fingers around the ring. A familiar tingling sensation exploded around his body, though this time much more violently. Pressure rolled onto his temples, his ears popped, and he felt his bones rattling beneath his skin, cracking underneath the mysterious force that seemed to be pulling a fragment of his soul out. His eyes watered, and then, a flash of green-hued light erupted from his body.

The black cat suit dematerialized for the final time. Standing before Ladybug wasn't Chat Noir, her longtime partner and good friend, but Adrien Agreste, her longtime crush and classmate. He wondered if he looked as awful as he felt - like he lost everything all over again in a single act of sacrifice - but he didn't let his mind dwell over such petty frets.

"Hawk Moth is Gabriel Agreste. Find a new Chat Noir. Then find me later. I'll tell you where his lair is, what his motives are - anything you need to know." His fingers threaded through his slick hair, almost yanking a good portion out from the roots. Before she could protest, or even thrust the ring back into his hands, Adrien bolted from the alleyway in spite of the insufferable heat.

He was homeless, unable to return to the Agreste mansion without fear of his father's retribution. Thoughts of his corpse lying at the feet of Gabriel Agreste swarmed his thoughts.

He was orphaned. Without a father who cared, without a mother to protect him.

He was powerless. Parted from his miraculous and kwami which gave him superhuman capabilities like leaping through the Parisian skyline with freedom weaving through his hair, or the lava-like burning resonating in the palm of his right hand, hoarding the power of destruction.

Adrien ran until he reached the outskirts of the city. And, for the moment, his eyes finally settled on his temporary home.

The sixteen year old would catch a glimpse of them from time to time. The miraculous villain-tackling duo. Creation and destruction, fortune and misfortune, harmony and chaos - ultimate balance perched precariously on a hilltop, ever shifting and yet, always well-maintained by its protectors.

The counterparts were made for one another, all of Paris could see it. The young woman, a petite figure with subtle strength coiled in her muscles and an agile mind that rivaled all famed strategists before her. The young man, although not extraordinarily muscular, was uncannily agile with stamina that put wolves to shame. With their protection, the threats that rose in Paris were kept at bay, the ultimate evil soon to be defeated.

Average citizens were warned to steer clear of the streets since the sudden spike in akuma attacks. Formerly busy shops were abandoned. The windows hallow eyes, tinted by the the blackness of death, the streets an overgrown cemetery long forgotten. Airports were shut down. Tourists were barred from returning home to their families.

Only the military - which arrived on the scene a few days prior - and the two Parisian heroes were seen out and about, working tirelessly around the clock to foil the schemes of Hawk Moth and his enslaved henchmen.

Adrien catch a glimpse of them from time to time. Ladybug, swinging her yo-yo with unnatural precision and Chat Noir at her side. He was clumsy, fumbling with his staff and powering up his cataclysm impulsively and without forethought or strategy, but as the days progressed his battle prowess vastly improved.

He closed his eyes. Adrien could imagine himself standing in Chat's shoes. He could hear Plagg's grating voice scolding him for foolishly activating his cataclysm too early again, and then begging for Camembert no matter how heated the battle had been. He could envision Ladybug shaking her head, but valuing and relying on his partnership all the same.

He didn't have to simply imagine it.

He could remember it.

He remembered all of it.

Sometimes he wondered who the new Chat Noir was; with his black hair fading to an electronic blue at the tips, which surprisingly matched the striking blue of his eyes which popped out in contrast with the black of his mask. But then he decided he didn't care.

And perhaps it was selfish to have wished for Ladybug's unwavering loyalty to him, to have hoped that she would have put the miraculous back into the palm of his hand and said, "you're going to need this if we're to take down Hawkmoth." Perhaps it was selfish of him to wish more citizens of Paris would talk about the new Chat Noir as he was - new, a replacement. He wished more people would wonder where he was.

But all that was left for him now was the valuable information on his head. He closed his eyes, telling himself that he was still useful in that way and his father could no longer use him as a pawn. But out of the corner of his eye Adrien saw the little black butterfly fluttering his way...


End file.
